Abstractions (and the art of recovering from mistakes)

These images were either taken in a deliberately abstract manner or post
processing was applied to extract an abstract essence from an existing image.
This is often a tiny element of an image taken for its color and form. Some
items were the result of creative use of PhotoPlus X5 on some rather distraught
negatives that I have rescued and scanned.

This is "Worcester 1". It was taken in Worcester MA near the
intersection of Foster and Commercial streets. The image has been color
separated and simplified.

Somewhere in Luton (Bedfordshire, England). Taken when I was about 16 on
some old, no-name camera. I recently recovered the negative and scanned it.

This is "Art In The Park - 2009, Extract". On a very hot day in 2009 I
had gone to visit the Worcester Art In The Park display. I was not terribly
excited by most of the exhibits but took some shots before going off to the
nearby Highland Street to photograph some rubbish and lightly wrecked phone
boxes. When I began playing with the images later I extracted this from a much
larger image

From Art in the Park, 2010. This was tall wood framed sculpture
photographed from the bottom and very heavily tweaked using the Curves function
in PhotoPlus.

This is an image extracted from a larger photograph (a recovered
negative) taken at a Peace Rally in Worcester in approximately 1982. I added a
little extra texture using an add-on filter.

"Amsterdam, Purple". This was taken in Amsterdam in about 1978. The
original negative had suffered very badly from being stored in a "protective"
sleeve to which it had become glued. I immersed it for several days in water
and managed (mostly) to remove the sleeve. Unfortunately various marks remained
on the negative. In addition damage had occurred to the color. So I decided to
emphasise the color changes and water damage for the final image. Enjoy!

This is from the same negative set as above. I think it is a very out of
focus shot taken on an Amsterdam canal on a very misty day.

This is "Pipes". I took it near a rather sleazy 24 hour bar called The
KasBar on Route 20 in Massachusetts.

"Knee". I had scanned some old black and white negatives and was
checking them for scratches and other marks, section by section. This image
filled the screen so I cut it out, colored it and here we are. The knees belong
to a girl called Margaret Fell-Smith

This was taken behind my bank in Auburn MA while waiting for the
drive-in counter. It is titled "Pipe and Lathe"

"Vortex" - I slipped while photographing a spiral staircase in a house
on Castle Street, Worcester, MA. This is a slightly tweaked version of the
image I took by mistake.

"Stoplight" a much color-shifted image taken in downtown Worcester.

"Store Front"

This was scanned from a color negative taken in Worcester in about 1990.
It is a parking garage. I post processed the image using a pen and watercolor
filter.

This is "Tammany Hall, Pleasant Street, Worcester". A bar in a nearby
town. A friend lives in one of the apartments above the bar. The image has beem
color saturated slightly and contrast intensified.

"Sunlight On Wood". An empty room in early morning sunlight photographed
at the Northeast Trade Center.

I was stopped at a traffic signal on the way home from work when I
noticed a van stopped next to me. This is the result.

"Curve". This was taken at the UMass Walk to cure Cancer 2010. no
changes have been made just a little cropping.

"Tent Shadow - Libya 1978". Another recovered negative. This time taken
in Libya in about 1978. There has been a color shift in the image. The only
post processing was a little sharpening and added contrast.

My friend, the poet Rick Alley, wrote this to accompany this image

Ghosts

It's tiresome to talk of ghosts. The listener, politely, yawns.
Some ghosts are holy. Some are simply smells-- an apple-whiff in cold
rooms long after your mother's gone. Are you grown? Did you possess a
toy you used to love? If so that toy's a . . . . the polite listener
falls asleep, of course, a sort of ghost.

Another image extracted from a shot taken at the Art In The Park
exhibition in 2009.